‘Master’ strokes as ‘The Continental’ aligns its friends and foes for war…

Winston Scott swears vengeance on the Continental’s boss Cormac, yet to follow through on such a crusade, he’s going to need help and in the New York of the 1970s, it’s easier to find enemies than friends. But as Cormac gathers his own forces, it’s becoming time for people to pick their sides and it seems everyone has their eyes on the prize. Not just dominance of the streets but simply survival when all the smoke clears…

*spoilers*

Most of the review for the first instalment of The Continental also holds true for the second chapter (of three feature-length entries) running on consecutive Friday nights. Anyone tuning in for the fast-momentum of the John Wick movies will have to adjust to the far slower and more talky pace of the prequel. But judged on its own merits, this remains impressive, a slightly heightened-reality and more sardonic version of The Godfather, with its interconnecting loyalties, betrayals and agenda. The violence on show is well-choreographed but even more of the ‘erk!‘ variety as bones get broken and flesh gets mashed in various confrontations than in the bullet ballets of the John Wick features to date.  Lights flicker, the stairways creak and golf-clubs stand firm like Chekov’s gun, waiting for their inevitably askew and profane use. What The Continental does better than its mothership is that innate sense of menace, the slow-burn contempt growing in the hearts and minds of its characters and the sense that there are no angels here, just how closely you hang on to your dance-card and which devil you choose…

Gibson eats the scenery with relish as Cormac, the glint in his eye and the spittle in his beard showing how primal a force he can be when crossed – yet one who knows there’s a storm on the horizon for which he will have to prepare. It’s good to see more of the back-stories for the characters being built-in.  We see the events that put the young Scott brothers on Cormac’s radar and the crime that would eventually lead to Frankie’s imprisonment and Winston’s exodus from American shores. There’s flashbacks to how Frankie met his to-be-wife Yen (Nhung Kate) – a suicide mission gone wrong. Each lends depth to the positions their older selves now take.

Lights flicker, the stairways creak and golf-clubs stand firm like Chekov’s gun, waiting for their inevitably askew and profane use. What The Continental does better than its mothership is that innate sense of menace, the slow-burn contempt growing in the hearts and minds of its characters and the sense that there are no angels here, just how closely you hang on to your dance-card and which devil you choose…

After the death of Ben Robson’s Frankie at the end of the previous chapter, it’s Colin Woodell’s Winston and his plans that get our attention. In no mood to forgive and forget – and now aware that Frankie did not return the stolen coin-press – he is smart and savvy enough to know that he will have to have a small army to defeat Cormac… and that the pool from which he needs to recruit is tainted by those who are too twisted to trust or too loyal to convert. But it’s interesting the way he searches out allies.  Though it’s mainly men who hold the overt, higher reins of power, the ladies who are stepping up to help take them down. Mishel Prada’s KD, the detective wanting to make something of her job as a female police detective is nuanced as she tries to stand for something while still finding reasons to carry on an affair with her partner Mayhew (Jeremy Bobb). Irish tour-de-force Katie McGrath is ‘The Adjudicator’, a half-masked enforcer with enough kudos to hold sway over Cormac’s fortunes (we don’t see her entire face, but we do get to see Cormac’s reaction to it).  British Award-winning theater, television and film actor Zainab Jah is Mazie, the lady who may bring her army of the unseen (vagrants and untouchables of the streets – of whom she gives a powerful speech about their motivation and pragmatic rallying-cry) if she agrees with the cause and we see some great martial-arts takedowns courtesy of Jessica Allain’s Lou as she humiliates the stooges of the Orphan Master (Dan Li). Adam Shapiro as Lemmy also gives a memorable explanation about loyalty – in the foxhole and beyond it, in a telling monologue about Muhammed Ali.

More to the forefront this week was Ayomide Adegun as the younger Charon, still the major domo to Mel Gibson’s Cormac and seemingly eternally loyal. It’s only our more prescient knowledge of what will happen later in his life (and the inevitable feeling that Cormac’s days are clearly numbered) that initially makes us watch more closely. Though the episode ends with Charon claiming his continuing devotion to his boss and the establishment, we all know that Cormac’s slaying of the celloist Thomas (Samual Blenkin, previously seen in Pennyworth, The French Dispatch and The Sandman) with whom Charon shared an almost intimate oasis amongst the chaos – and the less-than-subtle use of using Charon’s father’s welfare as a pivot – have likely helped sway Charon to the rebels’ cause. Though it’s Winston Scott leading that crusade to overturn the ‘management’, one suspects that it will be Charon that strikes the fatal blow in the battle ahead.

Amid the violence and darkness, there’s needed humour both in the almost-guessable one-liners and supporting players that sprinkle the screen and script and the visual easter-eggs from both the John Wick series and beyond (near the end, watch for Starsky and Hutch‘s famous red and white gran torino in the background). There’s also a significant soundtrack, with music – as ever – helping place the era in which everything takes place. There’s an argument to be made that there’s such a continuing selection of memorable tunes that they are ultimately over-used and even distracting, but each plays a part in the mood and context of their respective scenes. One bets a collection isn’t far behind.

As noted before, The Continental might not have been the spin-off you were expecting, but it’s screening is rapidly becoming an offer you cannot refuse…

The Continental: From the World of John Wick  is available on Peacock in the US and on Amazon Prime in other territories, with episodes released weekly on Fridays.